Sustainable growth and development indicators have emerged as the barometers of performance and public perception. NITI Aayog recently came out with the ranking of the municipal corporations based on defined parameters aggregated into 16 goals. Meerut with an overall score of less than 60 was a performer and not a front runner. In two crucial parameters of End Poverty and Decent Work and Affordable growth, the score of Meerut was just close to 30, which is subpar from any consideration. In terms of Multi Poverty Index developed by NITI Aayog also, the head count ratio of poverty was 21.1 per cent, though lower than the national average of 25 per cent was much above the ratio observed for Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, which was under 10 per cent. Performance of the Municipal Corporation in terms of parameters relating to health and education was also poor. While it performed better in sustainable production and consumption and civic amenities relating to water supply and sanitation, overall performance had significant incremental improvement scope. Better SDG score, which in a way is a surrogate measure of effectiveness of implementation and better outcome, could provide the benefits of agglomeration and higher scale of urbanization. It could also help the district to benefit from urban Meerut. Overall Goal based score and the score of Best Corporation is in graph below.
